Gregor Knell

Lemon Launchers takes 1st!

gregorknell — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 16:33:37 +0000

It’s Monday, Jan 28th and on Friday, Bill, Dep and I have plans to head up to Maine for a ski trip with friends from Boston. The Pepsi Twist competition isn’t due till Sunday but we won’t be back till Monday night. I love a good sprint every once in a while and decided to spend that week putting in 20 hour days of animating all the while filming a couple short spots for a Mrs. Dash competition. I managed to submit the animation with two hours to spare before Dep picked us up. I took a shot of whiskey and a shot of expresso and a long walk with Bill and realized I hadn’t left the house for four days! In the end, it was well worth the stress. Eustress.

This animation was a big step forward for me; adding what’s called 2.5d. It’s a lot more work but the sense of depth that it creates really heightens the realism. I really should send out an apology card to all my neighbors for making them listen to me bellow countless times, ‘And the humans will know! We! Are! Delicious!’ This was an Eyeka competition and getting news from them is always the best. They’re based in France and so send out their congratulation emails at 3am. It’s a wonderful way to wake up!

Ireland Tourism and Pizza Hut…?

gregorknell — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 16:14:44 +0000

My Ireland Tourism – “Green up” and Pizza Hut – “Say It” videos were purchased! Both of these competition were particularly competitive with 138 entries and over 700 entries, respectively. Though Pizza Hut was only for $500, it took us about 15 minutes on a lazy Sunday morning to film it and we found out about the purchase as we were driving up to Maine for a ski trip. Bill from the backseat of the car says, ‘Oh! Looks like this trip’s paid for by Pizza Hut.’

“Green Up” was a bit of a torture chamber. I new to really sell the concept I was going to have to paint my room green… really green. And I also had a good feeling that once I painted it, due to procrastination and other projects, I wouldn’t get around to unpainting my room for at least a week. It took three. I cannot tell you how put off I am of Kermit-Green. Needless to say, I painted the walls white and have not worn green since. Special thanks to my roommate Colwin for the Green eggs and pancakes. They were not only perfect but delicious.

Snowboard… because you haven’t before.

gregorknell — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 16:12:30 +0000

Top Coder – “What is EOI”

gregorknell — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 16:08:35 +0000

My Top Coder animation took 3rd place! This was a new style of animation for me, and a little studying color theory goes a long way. I’m really happy at how this one turned out as well as the new process I took to create it. Though the drawing, coloring, and texturizing of each animated piece took substantially longer, the effect of that kind of detail really pays off!

The Legend of Peter von Flight

gregorknell — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 15:57:37 +0000

The Legend of Peter von Flight took 1st place in it’s competition! We took a new approach with this video. Having normally set everything up so we could film in one day, we instead sectioned pieces off over five days of filming.

This was my first real step into compositing video. The helicopter shot as well as the scene where Peter is speaking on stage are built from a number of pictures and videos with Bill dropped inbetween. Though I’m only in the beginning stages of compositing, it’s quite a thrill to see a green screened shot turn into a full helicopter cockpits scene.